Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Increases Position in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP grew its holdings in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 47.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 191,752 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after purchasing an additional 61,783 shares during the quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP's holdings in Oracle were worth $26,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ORCL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,253,410 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $1,153,841,000 after purchasing an additional 207,137 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC boosted its stake in Oracle by 3.0% during the first quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 64,734 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $9,018,000 after buying an additional 1,855 shares during the last quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC boosted its stake in Oracle by 6.0% during the first quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC now owns 60,879 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $8,511,000 after buying an additional 3,456 shares during the last quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Oracle by 2.2% during the first quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 3,887 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trivium Point Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Oracle by 57.8% during the first quarter. Trivium Point Advisory LLC now owns 34,339 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $4,801,000 after buying an additional 12,580 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ORCL shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Oracle from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $221.00 price objective (up previously from $202.00) on shares of Oracle in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $240.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Oracle in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $222.75.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $244.89 on Friday. The stock's 50-day moving average is $229.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $179.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. Oracle Corporation has a 1-year low of $118.86 and a 1-year high of $260.87. The company has a market cap of $687.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.43.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $15.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.58 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 87.34% and a net margin of 21.68%. Oracle's revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.63 EPS. Analysts forecast that Oracle Corporation will post 5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Oracle's dividend payout ratio is currently 46.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, insider Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.10, for a total transaction of $3,211,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 60,722 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,000,580.20. This represents a 19.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Maria Smith sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.99, for a total value of $2,329,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 40,807 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,507,622.93. This represents a 19.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 444,183 shares of company stock worth $86,521,198. Corporate insiders own 42.20% of the company's stock.

Oracle Profile

Oracle Corporation offers products and services that address enterprise information technology environments worldwide. Its Oracle cloud software as a service offering include various cloud software applications, including Oracle Fusion cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion cloud enterprise performance management, Oracle Fusion cloud supply chain and manufacturing management, Oracle Fusion cloud human capital management, Oracle Cerner healthcare, Oracle Advertising, and NetSuite applications suite, as well as Oracle Fusion Sales, Service, and Marketing.

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